The Life Sciences team advised Orna Therapeutics (“Orna”) on entering into a definitive agreement with Eli Lilly & Company (“Eli Lilly”) in which Eli Lilly will acquire Orna for up to $2.4 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain clinical development milestones.
Orna Therapeutics is dedicated to designing and delivering a new class of fully engineered circular RNA (oRNA®) therapeutics to unlock the potential of RNA medicine to treat diseases anywhere in the body. Orna’s oRNA transcripts have advantages over traditional mRNA approaches, including simplified production, improved formulation into lipid nanoparticles, and superior protein expression. Its industry-leading LNP-based delivery systems and comprehensive editing programs position Orna to advance novel RNA medicines with vast potential to transform patient care.
The Goodwin team was led by Stuart Cable, Danielle Lauzon, Felipe M. Heiderich, Wei Xu, Evan Lee, Andrea Akinbola, Daniela Sanchez, Belem Sanchez, Artimus Cunningham, Christian Fan, Catherine McCarty, Carl Morales, Michael Shuster, Christopher Haley, Pavel Puzerey, Nancy Urizar, Frank Qin, Sarah Bock, James Oh, Christina Lewis, Daniel Karelitz, Gregg Coughlin, Susan Lee, Justin Pierce, GG Guckaya, Arman Oruc, Simone Waterbury, and Daniel Farraye with invaluable assistance from Scott Zilora and Abby King.
For more information on the deal, please read the press release.